United Church officials have rejected an appeal by Gibsons United Church members who had hoped to block a plan to sell the Trueman Road church.
The property has been on the market since the spring with an asking price of $779,000.
Shortly after a deal fell through over the summer, five church members filed an appeal with the United Church’s Vancouver - Burrard Presbytery, the governing body for this region. Part of the appeal was based on the grounds that the decision to sell was made without full consideration of the financial details, in particular a comparison of the cost of keeping the building and a proposed lease arrangement with the Gibsons Public Market.
The appellants and the board of the Gibsons congregation made their arguments before representatives of the Presbytery during a meeting at Gibsons United on Nov. 22.
Mary Bittroff has been working on behalf of the group, known as Save Our Church, and presentations included a draft budget intended to show the church is financially viable. Its key elements were a possible agreement to rent space to the Sun Haven Waldorf School that closed down this year in Roberts Creek, and cutting the salary and benefits for the minister to $38,100 a year.
Sun Haven representatives told Coast Reporter this week they haven’t made any decisions about their future.
Terry Harrison, team lead for the property branch of the United Church’s B.C. Conference, said the appeal hearing considered two questions – should the sale of the property go forward and should the lease agreement with the market be maintained?
Both moves were approved in a unanimous vote, with two Presbytery members choosing to abstain.
Harrison said leasing space at the market remains “plan A” for the future of the congregation.
Bittroff said Save Our Church was stunned and shocked at the rejection of their appeal, but only temporarily discouraged.
The Trueman Road property is zoned as public assembly, and community members opposed to the sale have said they fear it will become a multi-unit residential development at the cost of a hall used by several groups.
Harrison said they recognize that not everyone will agree with selling the church. “The church has a process whereby we try to listen to disagreement. Not to appease or try to get everybody to agree, but to be respectful. So while there’s not unanimous agreement among the entirety of the Gibsons United family, there is majority agreement to do this, and we want to honour the wishes of the majority and we are excited about the possibilities that this change, however challenging, can bring.”
Harrison also said there is another offer on the table, and it’s possible the deal could close before the end of the year.
